Dietary Variability During Bronze Age in Central Italy: First Results

This research aims at delineating the dietary practices in Central Italy during the Bronze Age. The study of food choices is a mean for investigating palaeoenvironmental agricultural and economic activities and social relationships, which have been little explored until now in Italy from this specific perspective. Recent researches have showed that the Middle Bronze Age is a crucial period of dietary changes in Italy. Following these first observations, we studied three Bronze Age sites in Tuscany and Latium: Grotta dello Scoglietto, Grotta Misa and Felcetone. Analyses of stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopes on 38 human and 22 animal collagen samples were performed. The results show three different dietary patterns. Data from Grotta dello Scoglietto (Early Bronze Age) indicate a high‐protein intake, with a probable consumption of fish. Additionally, sulphur results let us infer the presence of some non‐local people. Individuals from Felcetone (Initial phase of the Middle Bronze Age) show a terrestrial diet dominated by plant proteins, which suggests a low δ¹⁵N food intake, namely legumes, as well as C₄ plant, such as millet. Finally, values from Grotta Misa (Middle Bronze Age) highlight a mixed terrestrial diet and the consumption of millet. Given the variety of the obtained results, we are able to conclude that the transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age represents a moment of change, which is reflected by the presence of different dietary patterns. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国俄国史研究百年检视与思考

中俄交往始于蒙古西征和金帐汗国时代(1238-1480年),中国学人撰写俄国史自1878年刊印的鹭江奇迹人的《俄国志略》,到今天已经有整整140年的历史。中国的俄国史学科伴随民族命运、国家危机以及世界形势的变化而生,自诞生之日起即负有学人情怀、民族重任和学术职责三重使命。因此,俄国史学科在中国一直发挥着“知夷”和“盗火”的两大作用。中华人民共和国成立后,俄国史(包括苏联时期和俄罗斯联邦时期)研究获得了70年的巨大发展,主要成就有:1985年中国苏联东欧史研究会成立(1992年英文更名为中国俄罗斯东欧中亚史研究会),高等院校、社会科学院、党校、国家有关部委及党政机构纷纷设立俄国史或俄罗斯问题研究机构,建立了从历史学学士、俄国史硕士到俄国史博士的三级专业人才培养体系,俄国史和俄罗斯问题研究的专业期刊创立并连续出版,大量的俄国通史、中俄(中苏)关系史、专题著作、各类教科书、翻译著作(来自俄文、英法、法文、德文、波兰文等)出版,中国俄国史学者积极参与国际学术会议和国际合作研究,具有中国特色的中国“俄罗斯学”新学科正在建立过程中。     

河南焦作聂村商代晚期墓地人骨研究

通过对河南焦作聂村商代晚期遗址出土的人骨进行观察、测量和数据统计分析,结果表明,聂村商代晚期墓地所出人骨的死亡年龄主要集中在中年期,颅骨种族特征与古中原类型的殷墟中小墓(2)组最近似,成年男性居民平均身高为165.41厘米。在聂村商代晚期人骨上还发现筛状眶与多孔性骨肥厚、骨性关节炎等骨骼病理,两性在龋病患齿率上存在显著差异,女性明显高于男性。     

1500 Years of Pottery: Neutron Activation Analysis of Northern Chilean Domestic Ceramics from Caleta Vitor and Clay Samples from Nearby Valley,Coast and Highland Contexts

This paper presents the findings arising from neutron activation analysis (NAA) of northern Chilean domestic ceramic samples from Caleta Vitor (n = 38) and clay samples (n = 15) from nearby valley, coast and highland contexts. This study presents the first NAA data set of ceramics spanning a temporal period of 1500 years (c.2000 to c.476 bp ) from the Vitor Valley as well as the first attempt to use NAA to characterize potential clay sources in the region. On the basis of this study, we argue that the majority of domestic ceramics from Caleta Vitor share compositional similarities with clay samples collected from nearby valleys, allowing us to infer that the Caleta Vitor populations primarily procured their clay for domestic ceramics from local sources throughout a 1500‐year period. Thus, despite the fact that there were inter‐regional interactions during this period that included the influence of powerful Andean polities, it would appear that domestic ceramics continued to be produced locally, and by implication it can be argued that such interactions did not substantially affect this sphere of material culture production. Further, the apparent continuities in domestic ceramic production allow us to reflect on local decision‐making processes throughout the cultural phases considered in this research.     

Compositional Analysis of Ceramics from Goguryeo Fortified Sites in Central Korea

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the ceramics from the Goguryeo fortified sites of the Han River region in central Korea were manufactured and consumed locally during the southern expansion of the Goguryeo State (475–551 ce ). For this research, 88 ceramic samples from seven contemporary sites in the southern territories of Goguryeo were sampled and analysed by ceramic thin‐section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA). In addition, to establish a possible chemical fingerprint at Hongryeonbong Fort 2, five clay specimens were also gathered and analysed from the pottery firing structure. The results of this analytical study indicate that the majority of the ceramics from the Goguryeo fortified sites of central Korea were produced and circulated within this newly acquired region. In addition, it is highly probable that Hongryeonbong Fort, which contains the remains of what may be ceramic firing architecture, is the place of production for the ceramics.     

The Gender,Place and Culture Jan Monk Distinguished Annual Lecture: Gentrification,assassination and forgetting in Mexico: a feminist Marxist tale

In this article, I employ feminist and Marxist tools to expose the struggles over the constant plunder and expansion of global capitalism along Mexico's northern border, specifically in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. In particular, I examine how an official politics – promoted by the Mexican and US governments – for forgetting the economic and social devastation of a transcontinental drug war contributes to the mechanisms for further exploiting the working poor. By combining a feminist focus on the daily struggle of social reproduction with a Marxist emphasis on accumulation by dispossession, I show how this official ‘forgetting’ segues with an international gentrification plan in downtown Ciudad Juárez that seeks to expand the rent gap by denying place, legitimacy and legal status to the working women and their families who have made this border city famous as a hub of global manufacturing. As such, I argue that the social struggles against the official forgetting are struggles against a violent political economy that generates value via a devaluation of the spaces of the working poor, even of the spaces of their literal existence.     

Africa's earliest bananas?

The recent discovery of banana phytoliths dating to the first millennium BC in Cameroon has ignited debate about the timing of the introduction of this important food crop to Africa. This paper presents new phytolith evidence obtained from one of three sediment cores from a swamp at Munsa, Uganda, that appears to indicate the presence of bananas (Musa) at this site during the fourth millennium BC. This discovery is evaluated in the light of existing knowledge of phytolith taphonomy, the history of Musa, ancient Indian Ocean trade and African prehistory.     

A new Palaeolithic discovery: tar-hafted stone tools in a European Mid-Pleistocene bone-bearing bed

Two stone flakes partly covered in birch-bark-tar and a third without tar on it were discovered in fluvial gravel and clay in central Italy, in association with the bones of a young adult female Elephas (Palaeoloxondon) antiquus and several micromammals. The probable chronology of the stone flakes is compatible with the late Middle Pleistocene suggested by the site's small mammals and geological context. The fauna indicates a cool stadial episode before isotope stage 6. That age means the flakes are the oldest ever found hafted with tar and indicate a greater capacity for late Middle Pleistocene hominins to utilize raw materials available during cold phases.     

古代西北疆域研究若干问题的思考

古代西北疆域是我国疆域的重要组成部分,对古代西北疆域的研究也是边疆史地研究中的重点之一。本文分析了西北疆域研究中应该注意的几个问题,认为以动态的标准确定我国不同时期的历史疆域是研究西北疆域的基本前提;西北疆域地位不断演变,是西北疆域变迁史的基本特点之一,也是西北疆域形成过程的基本形式。同时,文章还就民族、地理环境、国防安全等方面说明了西北疆域形成和发展的内在原因。